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Day 3: Monday, May 27, 2002
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Note: At Zell am See two different route options present themselves. The all-Austrian route takes the rider up through Bischofshofen and Werfen and then into Salzburg. The lesser-known (and less crowded) Bavarian option routes through Bad Reichenhall, Germany, and then into Salzburg. Both routes start at Zell am See and reconverge at Salzburg. On this trip we stayed on the Austrian route, but on a subsequent trip we rode the Bavarian option. We liked the alternate Bavarian route a bit more, but both are very nice. Read more about the Bavarian route in our 2004 trip report.
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We woke up at 7:00 to clouds and rain. Oh no! Not on the second day! We grumbled and whined as we headed down to breakfast. Should we wimp-out and take the train? We decided to try riding a bit, with the train as a fall-back, since the rain was fairly light.
Breakfast was pretty good, Muesli, Semmels, meat and cheese, jam, butter, and tea/coffee. Surprising! The room was packed, and the only two seats were next to an older lady from Switzerland and a young woman from Sweden. We had a really nice time talking with them about traveling (using a combination of English and German).
But, we could put it off no longer: it was time to head out into the rain. We trudged upstairs and looked out the window as we were packing up. Lo and behold, the rain stopped and the sky was clearing! Happy day! Not believing our good fortune, we packed quickly and headed out. There was a large group (20+) getting ready to ride out on their bikes, and when we brought out the tandem several folks came over to look at it and ask us questions. Like many bikers in Zell, they were off on a day ride to Krimml and back with the train.
We headed out on the nice radweg that goes through the fields outside Zell am See. The gravel path was wet, but we got to moo at some cows (which had the obligatory bells on) and say hi to the horses along the way. We lost the bike route signs when we were riding through the town of Bruck, but we managed to find a Billa supermarket for some early-morning refreshment (I love strawberry flavored Mueller Milch!).
At the market we had a nice conversation with a man from Piesendorf, a town we rode through the previous day. He asked about the tandem, where we were going, where we are from, etc., and proudly told us that he owned an American bike (a Cannondale). He pointed us in the correct direction, and made sure to tell us that there were many hills ahead. Did we need to know this?
Nutritionally fortified ("eat to ride, ride to eat"), we headed off toward the first hills of the day. Turns out they weren't too bad, and we actually did pretty well on them. Two hills in short succession, not long but steep. The second was a gravel uphill which slowed us down as the wet dirt grabbed at the tires. We passed a few tourists pushing their bikes uphill, but we pedaled on.
We reviewed the trail guide and decided to bypass the next hill by heading out on the road that parallels the river (map #6 in the Bikeline book). We found a bridge across the river and found ourselves waiting at a portable traffic light set at the beginning of a construction zone. We glanced nervously over our shoulders at the long line of trucks and buses behind us waiting for the light, and when it turned green we pedaled as hard as we could (thankfully it was a downhill and not too far) to the other side of the zone, staying ahead of the traffic the entire way. Gasping for breath, we pulled over and let the traffic pass.
The road wasn't too busy once the pent-up traffic passed us, so we decided to stay on it to Taxenbach. It was nice riding on good pavement, and the route we took bypasses two steep hills on the trail that I remembered from last year. The road goes through a tunnel, but a disused side road that skirts the tunnel to the right allowed us to avoid riding through the darkness. A quick downhill took us across two bridges and into the town of Lend.
We decided to stay on the alternate route (marked in the guide) along the road in order to avoid the big climb up and over to Schwarzach. The road from Hundsdorf to Schwarzach is pretty, lightly-used, and follows the river with its white water and rock gardens (perfect for the white water rafting companies we saw running the rapids). There is an impressive set of falls on the right about 2K after Lend, easy to miss behind a factory. You have to go into their parking lot to see them (look for the Autobahn bridge high up above the gorge).
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| Waterfall near Lend, behind an industrial building. Autobahn bridge at top of photo. |
After a bit the route left the small road and curved up an on-ramp to a primary road into Schwarzach. We immediately came upon a short tunnel, which wasn't a problem to ride through. It looked like there might be a path around the tunnel to the right (behind the shop with the big "Sexy" sign!), but traffic was light so we rode through it without incident. We were happy that we had brought our rear blinking light to keep us from getting rear-ended by a motorist.
Schwarzach is a good-sized town and has a Billa market just as you come into town. We bought lunch there and rode toward town and down to the river, where we ate on a nondescript side street on a bus bench. The path from here transitions from a road to a nice gravel path along the river, where we passed several nice benches and even picnic tables. I wish we had waited to eat lunch in this nice setting!
The path continues on gravel toward St. Johann and Bischofshofen along the river, but it's not terribly scenic (kind of boring). Somehow we managed to miss where the bike path turned off, and found ourselves riding on a very narrow path squeezed between railroad tracks and the river. We startled several fishermen who gave us strange looks. We were happy to finally come upon a road with a tunnel under the train tracks that led us to the main street through town (and back to the bike route).
Bischofshofen is very busy, and the trail routes you right along the main street. We stopped to look at a church, made use of the public WC, and looked at lodging options at the TI. We were in the mood for a quieter town to spend the night, so we decided to ride on to the small town of Werfen, about eight miles further. The flat riverside ride to Werfen went quickly, and we decided to check out the B&B where I stayed the previous year.
Unfortunately, it's up an incredibly steep hill, so we pushed the bike up about a mile (according to the odometer); it's so steep that we were scared to ride down it the next day, even with the drum brake on! The hausfrau and her husband were outside, and, thankfully, had a room available (the same I had last year). It was a bit more expensive than I remembered, though, at 40 Euros total, but the host was very nice and we weren't in the mood to try to find another place.
After a refreshing shower we walked down the hill and eat an excellent dinner outside at a gasthaus (Zwiebelrostbraten for me). The sun was out, the sky was blue, and the mountains were snowcapped. A nice payoff for the day, and a good sign for tomorrow?